April 24, 2024 is the 9th "China Space Day". On April 24, 1970, the mainland launched its first artificial satellite, Dongfanghong 1, which has long since ended its mission but is still operating in low-earth orbit. The successful launch of the Dongfanghong-1 satellite indicates that the mainland has become the fifth country in the world to independently develop and launch an artificial earth satellite after the Soviet Union, the United States, France, and Japan.
So far, our space industry has developed for more than half a century and has made tremendous progress in space exploration. On the ninth "China Space Day", we officially announced the new progress of the Shenzhou-18 spacecraft, including the time of the launch mission, the situation of the astronaut crew, and some details of the mission.
Although everyone is looking forward to seeing a female commander appear as soon as possible, or looking forward to a female astronaut participating in the Shenzhou 18 mission, it is a pity that there is no female commander in the Shenzhou 18 mission. This is actually something that everyone expected, because the astronauts who participated in the Shenzhou 18 mission have been selected a long time ago, and they have been participating in mission training in the past few months and 1 year, and will not participate in offline activities in the near future. The female astronauts Wang Yaping and Liu Yang, who have the conditions to serve as female commanders, have recently made public appearances and participated in offline activities, so everyone also predicted in advance that there would be no female commanders on this mission.
At 9 a.m. on April 24, 2024, the press conference of the Shenzhou 18 manned mission was held, and the official introduced the details of the mission.
Three astronauts, Ye Guangfu, Li Cong, and Li Guangsu, were selected as the astronaut crew of the Shenzhou 18 spacecraft, of which astronaut Ye Guangfu served as the commander of the mission. The astronauts participating in this mission are very young, all of them are "post-80s", which actually shows that the average age of our astronaut team is getting younger and younger, and young astronauts are becoming the main force of the aerospace industry.
Shenzhou-18 was successfully launched
The long-awaited Shenzhou-18 spacecraft was successfully launched on the evening of April 25, and the three astronauts are about to start a six-month space flight journey. The Shenzhou-18 spacecraft is the third manned mission in the application and development stage of the continental space station. According to the plan, the main purpose of this mission is to complete the in-orbit rotation and handover with the Shenzhou-17 astronaut crew.
The duration of the mission is about six months, and the astronauts will conduct a series of space science and application experiments and experiments, as well as astronaut out-of-cabin activities and cargo entry and exit capsules, as well as the installation of space debris protection devices, extravehicular loads and extravehicular equipment installation and recovery of space station space. It can be said that this flight mission is still very busy.
Now the Shenzhou 18 spacecraft has been launched, with the arrival of the Shenzhou 18 spacecraft, this also means that the Shenzhou 17 spacecraft is about to return, and the official has also announced the return time of the Shenzhou 17, that is, to return to Earth on April 30, land at the Dongfeng landing site, and end the 6-month space flight journey. At present, the three astronauts of Shenzhou 17 are in good condition and are waiting for the arrival of the Shenzhou 18 astronauts.
And the launch of the Shenzhou 18 spacecraft also means that the launch time of Shenzhou 19 has also been determined. Because now our space station has entered the stage of normal operation, the two astronaut crews will rotate in orbit, and when the Shenzhou 18 spacecraft returns a few days before its return, the Shenzhou 19 spacecraft will be launched. From the perspective of time, now the Shenzhou 18 spacecraft has been launched and is expected to return to Earth in late October, so the launch time of the Shenzhou 19 spacecraft is around late October.
The manned landing on the moon is progressing steadily
At the press conference of the Shenzhou-18 mission, the manned lunar landing program that everyone is concerned about was also mentioned. At present, the mission of the lunar landing stage of the manned lunar exploration project has been launched, and the plan is to achieve the first manned lunar landing of Chinese before 2030.
In fact, many years ago, there has been a lot of news about when the Chinese will achieve a manned landing on the moon, but there has been no clear time node before, only roughly mentioned that it will be achieved around 2030. In 2023, we officially announced that we will achieve a manned landing on the moon before 2030, clarifying the time node.
At present, the Long March-10 carrier rocket, the Mengzhou manned spacecraft, the lunar lander, the lunar landing suit, and other major flight products used to carry out the manned lunar landing program have all completed the development of the program, and the production of the first sample products and various test work are being carried out in an all-round way.
From a technical point of view, we actually have mastered many key technologies for manned lunar landing, such as manned spaceflight, lunar landing technology, lunar take-off technology, lunar orbit rendezvous and docking technology, etc. Theoretically speaking, when our new generation of manned rockets, new generation manned spacecraft and other related products are successfully developed, a manned landing on the moon is just around the corner.
Of course, a manned landing on the moon is obviously much more difficult than a low-Earth orbit flight. On the one hand, the distance between the Moon and the Earth is greater, and more powerful rockets and larger spacecraft are needed to send astronauts into lunar orbit. At the same time, there is still gravity on the surface of the moon, which is about one-sixth of the Earth's, which is still different from the weightless environment of low-earth orbit flight.
Therefore, manned lunar missions are more challenging, more difficult, and more risky, and the requirements for astronauts are relatively high. This aspect was also taken into account in the selection process of the third and fourth batches of astronauts, who can carry out missions in low-earth orbit and can also achieve manned missions to the moon.